A Cheshire walk

Rabbit, Gorse Covert Mounds 

It was a dry but very grey day so I thought I'd go chasing yellow-browed warblers. One's been reported a couple of times in the past week in the Silver Lane area between the M62 and Culcheth, I don't know the area so it was an opportunity to do a bit of exploring.

The quickest way for me to get there was to get the train to Birchwood then get either the 28 to the Noggin Inn or the 25 to Hamsterly Close then have a mile and a bit walk to the place indicated on Birdguides. This involves waiting half an hour for the bus at Birchwood Station; I couldn't be doing with waiting that long for a two mile ride so I walked it. Rather than taking a straight line through Birchwood from the station to Gorse Covert thence over Pestfurlong Hill onto Silver Lane and over the motorway I walked along the stretch of Birch Forest Park by the railway, past Risley Moss, across Birch Park and thence into Gorse Covert, adding about a mile to the walk.

Arriving at Birchwood Station I had a quick look over the ploughed fields next to the Liverpool-bound platform where a couple of hundred black-headed gulls and a few dozen woodpigeons were busy feeding.

Long-tailed tit, Birchwood Forest Park

From the moment I stepped into Birch Forest Park the trees were noisy with great tits and I was getting some practice into finding small birds amongst the Autumn greenery. If the great tits hadn't been so noisy I'd have struggled to spot them. As it was, once I'd got them in my sights I could pick out the blue tits and long-tailed tits they were flocking with. In the mile and a half of this part of the walk I bumped into five mixed tit flocks and in two of those the most conspicuous birds were the goldcrests. A couple of robins sang, wrens scolded and blackbirds were acrobatically busy getting the last of the hawthorn berries.

Birchwood Forest Park 

Overhead there was a constant passage of woodpigeons flying North from the ploughed fields the other side of the railway. Every so often they'd be passing over in their dozens, at least a hundred and fifty went over while I was walking through. A couple of buzzards called loudly as they flew low over the trees, shadowed by carrion crows part of the way. I was struggling a bit with the weather: the air was cool but the wind was warm and I'd swapped the Winter jacket for the Summer one over the weekend.

I walked round Risley Moss rather than going in it, I didn't want to add a detour to the walk. The mixed flock I bumped into here was made up of great tits and goldcrests with a dunnock tagging along.

Birch Park

I cut across Birch Park to Gorse Covert. The hedgerows were noisy with great tits and robins, I bumped into more goldcrests and a bullfinch sighed mournfully in the trees by the car park.

Gorse Covert Mounds 

Gorse Covert's the housing estate on the Eastern side of Birchwood, separated from the M62 by a strip of parkway called Gorse Covert Mounds running up to Pestfurlong Hill. I hadn't gone far into Gorse Covert Mounds when I bumped into a large mixed tit flock which included a couple of dozen blue tits, none of which were up for having their photo taken. The goldcrests and long-tailed tits were relatively shy, unlike a coal tit which came up close to tease the amateur photographer. I've had the new camera a while now but I'm still not quite used to the camera"s reactions being slower than mine. There were half a dozen moorhens on the end of the pond by the path as I passed.

Winter Hill from Pestfurlong Hill 

I checked out the views from Pestfurlong Hill and wandered down onto Silver Lane and over the motorway. The wind was cooling and there was a hint of rain in the air as I stood at the beginning/end of the lane North of the motorway and wondered where to go.

Google Maps told me to follow a path though Pestfurlong Moss that would take an hour and a half to get to the point about fifty yards from where I was standing, which seemed odd. I had a scan over the moss while I was here and found a few woodpigeons in the fields and goldfinches in the hedgerows. The turn-off on the North of the motorway is a contractors' service road with a bit of parking and a locked gate. I decided to cross this road to see if the grey streak on the map was a footpath. It was, and it immediately dropped onto the stretch of Silver Lane on Culcheth Heights. I refreshed Google Maps to see which way to go along the lane. I then ignored the advice.

Occasionally Google Maps plays tricks on you.
The stretch of path I've coloured red took 2 minutes to walk.

A Southern hawker zipped by the trees along the path as I checked the map. The trees thinned out as I walked down the lane and soon I was in open country with a small pool on one side of the path and thin scrub on the other. I was seeing or hearing no sign of any tit flocks, or any small birds at all. 

Culcheth Heights 

Shrine to the Dog Shit Fairy 

The clouds rolled in and visibility dropped with a hint of drizzle in the air. I'd gone a good hundred yards when I disturbed a large finch which flew up and circled over me then disappeared into the scrub. The light was so bad I had to use a process of elimination to identify it as a greenfinch, anything else would have had some white in the plumage. The flock of linnets I bumped into a few minutes later were easier to identify, as was the flock of starlings rising from a field on Pestfurlong Moss.

Silver Lane Lakes 

I followed the lane round to the North then dropped down onto the path by the lakes. I was beginning to wonder why I shouldn't give up and take the quickest route to Warrington Road thence home when a chiffchaff squeaked in the scrub and reminded me why I was here. This felt more like tit flock country. I hadn't gone far when I started hearing blue tits, great tits and dunnocks. A couple of jays flew by, a couple of robins sang, long-tailed tits bounced through the trees.

All the pools so far had been empty water. The largest pool was busy with birds. A raft of a few dozen black-headed gulls bathed and preened, pairs of tufted ducks and wigeons drifted midwater and coots fussed about near the banks.

Silver Lane Country Park 

The hints of rain had passed though it was still grey and gloomy. I carried on along the small path heading East through more mature oak woodland. Blackbirds, wrens and robins fossicked about in the undergrowth, a few great tits called from the trees.

 If there was a yellow-browed warbler about I'd expect it to be in the woodlands round the lakes but I had me no luck today. This is part of Silver Lane Country Park, of which I was ignorant until today. If I were to come back I think I'd get the 28 to the Noggin Inn and walk down Silver Lane from there.

Looking back at Silver Lane Country Park 

I followed the path down to the end of the woods then followed the footpath that doglegs through the fields and through the farmyard onto Warrington Road. A buzzard called noisily from a telegraph pole at a couple of herons that flew low by over the field. One set of telephone lines had a dozen starlings and a couple of mistle thrushes, another had thirty-odd linnets and a couple of meadow pipits.

There's a long stretch of Warrington Road between the bus stops at Risley Prison and Newchurch at the edge of Culcheth and the footpath I was on meets the road halfway along. The 28 bus to Leigh passed me halfway to Newchurch. This is an hourly service, I decided to walk into Culcheth for the 19 to Leigh. I got to the bus stop by the library with quarter of an hour to spare, if the buses were running on time I'd have a similar wait for the 126 back to the Trafford Centre. The 19 arrived three-quarters of an hour later and crawled through Glazebury at such a glacial pace that not only did I not catch the 126 I was aiming for, I didn't catch the one leaving Leigh and hour and ten minutes later. I was just in time to get the 35 to Boothstown where I got the next 132 to the Trafford Centre and for once made the connection for the 25 home. 

It had taken almost as long to get home from Culcheth on the buses as it has to walk there from Birchwood. It had been a good walk, though, and pretty good birdwatching even though I didn't get a yellow-browed warbler.